Pacific Leatherback Turtle 10 Years From Extinction

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, February 26, 2004 (ENS) - The leatherback turtle may be extinct within a decade in the Pacific Ocean, delegates to the 24th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Conservation and Biology were told here today.

More than 1,000 turtle experts from 70 countries have gathered for a week long meeting that this year focuses on the relationship between humans and sea turtles. Once merely a forum for an exchange of ideas, the symposium is now considered one of the most important and influential decisionmaking bodies for the conservation of sea turtles worldwide.

Leatherbacks, named for their smooth, leathery skin, are rapidly disappearing from the Pacific Ocean. Since 1982, their numbers have dropped from about 115,000 reproductive females to fewer than 3,000 remaining today, a decline of 97 percent.

"The Pacific leatherbacks currently face an annual mortality rate of up to 30 percent," said James Spotila, Drexel University Professor of Environmental Science. "That rate is clearly unsustainable, and without dramatic intervention, we can expect to see them disappear in as soon as a decade."

This leatherback turtle is covering her nest after laying on a beach in French Guiana. (Photo by Matthew Godfrey courtesy Seaturtle.org)

But now, if the oceans and the leatherbacks' nesting beaches are not protected immediately, they will be gone.

"On land, the canary in the coal mine warns humans of impending environmental danger," said Roderic Mast, Conservation International vice president and president of the International Sea Turtle Society.

"Sea turtles act as our warning mechanism for the health of the ocean, and what they're telling us is quite alarming," said Mast. "Their plummeting numbers are, unfortunately, symptomatic of the ocean as a whole."

Five of the other six sea turtle species are also at risk of extinction. The Kemp's ridley and hawksbill turtles are classified by the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered, as is the leatherback.

The green, olive ridley and loggerhead turtles are all considered Endangered. The flatback turtle, found solely on the northern coast of Australia, is regarded as Data Deficient.

Sea turtles face threats ranging from destructive fishing practices such as longlining and the poaching of turtle eggs, which some cultures regard as a delicacy.

Longlining is a practice in which ships extend up to 90 miles of fishing line with as many as 8,000 hooks, many of which unintentionally capture and kill sea turtles instead of their intended targets of fish.

Scientists say that that the rapid population decline of sea turtles can be reversed, but not unless their nesting beaches are protected from uncontrolled beachfront development and the poaching of eggs.

Baby leatherback turtles on the beach (Photo by Roderic Mast courtesy Conservation International)

But when stronger protections are put in place, experts say, the leatherbacks respond positively, as they have on the beaches of St. Croix and South Africa.

In addition, the ocean as a whole needs greater levels of protection if leatherbacks are to survive into the future. Currently, less than one-half of one percent of the ocean is under some sort fo formal protection.

And finally, the fishing industry needs to employ new and safer techniques to keep from catching and killing sea turtles unintentionally in their hunt for fish, Conservation International warns.

Small and inexpensive changes to fishing techniques, such as slightly larger hooks and traps from which sea turtles can escape, can dramatically cut the mortality rate.

Scientists and conservationists at the conference highlighted several international success stories that demonstrate that well planned conservation efforts can halt and reverse the decline of the sea turtles.

For example, four Latin American nations, the United Nations Foundation, UNESCO's World Heritage Centre and Conservation International's Global Conservation Fund are investing several million dollars over the next three years to consolidate a marine protected area that stretches from Ecuador to Costa Rica.